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Monday, December 17, 2012

Christmas Primping


It was a working weekend for my husband.

We picked out our fresh tree at a local nursery on Saturday,
and hauled it home in the back of the minivan.
On the drizzly Sunday, up it went in our sunroom.

Howard worked, Dylan snoozed,
I snapped some pictures and, um, supervised.

This year's tree is very dark and dense, and it has
consumed 1,300 lights and still looks not bright.
But since we don't want to cause a brownout in the neighborhood,
we are not adding any more strands!


I began tossing the ornaments on the tree, and as of last night
I'd worked my way through one Rubbermaid bin.  Almost.
Lots more tree and hundreds of ornaments to go! 

Why is it so wickedly hard to take pictures of Christmas trees?
 I decided to take some pictures this morning.
But when I looked at them, they looked . . . odd.
Kind of cool looking, but distinctly odd.


Turns out, Anne had been using my
Nikon Coolpix camera, which I rarely use,
and had left it set on an "only find the red colors" setting.
Duh.


 So what was I doing while Howard was manfully
stringing hundreds of teensy lights in our tree?

 I emptied the Rubbermaid bins full of Christmas decor.  As usual,
the dining room is the staging area.  North Pole, New Jersey.

So things are progressing here at That Old House.
I am getting very into the Christmas spirit, getting excited!

Dylan Dog, however, is taking things rather casually.

As he sees it, his job is still to scramble for treats, be adorable,
perform dogly duties such as being a lap desk for Anne's Ipad,
keep us on our toes by testing his limits
(most recently: "Dylan, no! Don't EAT the tree!"),
and grab a snooze whenever the moment seems right.
Like, now.

So goodbye for this Monday, from me, and Dylan,
and That Old House -- Cass

Blog Parties!
At Little Red House, it's Mosaic Monday, so click here!
At Between Naps On The Porch, Metamorphosis Monday is the place to be. Click!



P.S.  Dear friends -- I, like you, have shed countless tears the past 4 days, in our national -- no, worldwide -- agony of grief for the families in Newtown, Connecticut.  Is there a remedy for these incidents in a free society?  I think the best personal response that I've heard, other than our prayers, thoughts, hearts, is to respond to this random violence with random kindness.  I'm not sure how I'll accomplish this, and this won't affect those at the fringes who perpetrate these monstrous acts, but it is something, and most importantly, it is the opposite of what was done on Friday in that small New England town.  And, I can celebrate the birth of Jesus, and still rejoice in that.

8 comments:

  1. Your tree is beautiful. I, like you and countless others, grieve for the families who will look at their tree and find no joy this year or for years to come.

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  2. I like those find red pictures. I wonder if my Nikon will do that. It has functions I have yet to discover. Your tree is beautiful.

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  3. Love, love, love the black and white and red pictures of the tree! What a neat trick. It's times like these that I really wish I was better with technology...and photography....and all such things. Of course, Christmas is still in the explosion stage at my house so nothing is ready to be shown publicly....in any form!

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  4. Lovely tree--it would be nice to drive by your house and see that shining in the windows of your sunporch. That would be a kindness bestowed to those who drive by and smile and point and say "look at that." And it's so nice you have a new pup to continue in her predecessor's role of enhancing your blog posts!

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  5. Your tree is absolutely gorgeous and I agree with you...it's so hard to get a good picture at night and I notice during the day all of the blank spaces. This year I let the limbs drop before putting the lights on (my son and his wife, not me, And leaving the branches to drop was out of circumstance, not for only practical purposes!).

    I hope Dylan is enjoying his first Christmas season!

    XO,
    Jane

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  6. The tree looks very pretty.
    I'm sure it will all come together.

    M :)

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  7. I love your tree - it's so MERRY!

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  8. Wow, the tree is simply lovely and your home even lovelier! Have a Merry Christmas!

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